Rajasthan police send weapons of Punjab cops to forensic lab

Rajay DeepChandigarhWeapons of Punjab cops: Amid the family members of infamous gangster Harjinder Singh Bhullar alias Vicky Gaunder accused Punjab Police of killing him and his two associates including Prema Lahoria in a fake encounter, Rajasthan Police have procured all weapons of the team involved in operation to verify the sequence of operation. Having received about two dozen weapons belonging to all 22 members involved in the operational team, which was led by the state’s organised crime control unit (OCCU)’s AIG Gurmeet Chauhan, Rajasthan Police have now sent them to Jodhpur forensic laboratory to match the details of firing reported by Punjab Police.Confirming the details, OCCU IG Nilabh Kishore said, “We have submitted all our weapons used in the operation with Rajasthan Police as these were sought for the investigation.”The state government of Rajasthan is also conducting a magisterial inquiry of the whole episode under the supervision of Sriganganagar Improvement Trust secretary, to ensure that there is no foul play in it. Besides, a police inquiry is also being conducted by Sriganganagar ASP Surinder Singh Rathore.Notably, the encounter took place at a ‘dhani’ (hamelt) named 2C, located near village Pakki in the area of Hindumal Kot in Sriganganagar district of Rajasthan, located at 50 meters from Punjab border, on January 26.Initially, Punjab police finding it executed within its territory initiated the proceedings but on the submission of Khuian Sarwar SHO in Fazilka district, who found the location falling within Rajasthan state, Punjab police had to handover the matter to the counterpart. A case under different sections was also then registered by Sriganganagar district police.Sarvinder Singh, who was killed along with Gounder and Lahoria, was first rushed to Abohar Civil Hospital in a bleeding state, where he was declared dead by succumbing to the bullet injuries, was also called back as Rajasthan police found the operation took place within its territorial limits.The initial conflict over the jurisdiction erupted between the police of two states got escalated as Gounder’s maternal uncle Gubhej Singh Sandhu, while interacting with media on his cremation day at Sarawan Bodla village in Muktar district, alleged that his nephew had called him on WhatsApp two hours before his encounter to share that he was set to surrender before the police through one of his old friend and Punjab police inspector Bikram Brar, who was later projected as the one of the key officers executed the operation.“I had advised him not to trust anyone and surrender through Court but he was overconfident so fell victim to Punjab police’s betrayal,” he added. “The police have shown some weapons seized from the spot, which not even a small-time thief would carry. Even the cartridges seized from the spot do not match the weapons. Besides, Vicky and his aides were wearing just T-shirts and were barefoot. The cops have concocted a false story. Even the Rajasthan police informed us that they got the information of the encounter after an hour of the incident,” alleged Sandhu, demanding CBI probe into the episode.On the other hand, Inspector Bikram Brar refuted the allegations and claimed it an absolute real encounter, mentioning that two of the state cops also got injured in the cross firing. He also denied being personally known to Gounder and rejected the claim of having Jalandhar connection with him in anyway.